When California-born war correspondent Saffron Roch discovers that she’s pregnant (read: knocked-up, newly jobless, and single at thirty-eight), she decides to leave Sierra Leone and surgeon Oscar DeVries, the baby’s cheating father who, despite his huge ego and surprisingly small member, had captured her heart.

So Saffron turns in her backstage pass to the violent dissolution of third-world countries and returns home to Los Angeles, where she is about to inherit a beach property worth a fortune. There she throws herself into motherhood, joining a politically correct breast-feeding support group at the Pump Station. In full-blown culture shock, missing Africa, Saffron comes face to face with a group of unlikely women friends and a roomful of Scud nipples that, on looks alone, could bring any rogue nation to its knees.

Making It Up As I Go Along is a dazzling debut novel that questions the very meaning of motherhood, home, and family, while offering an unforgettable look at the camaraderie of women who, across borders and generations, teach Saffron a thing or two about what matters most in life.

From the Hardcover edition.